The present invention concerns important improvements in the weft carrying grippers for shuttleless weaving looms, namely in those members by which the weft yarns are inserted at one end of the loom and are carried to the opposite end thereof through the warp shed.
There are known to be a great number of members of this kind. The invention particularly concerns a pair of weft carrying grippers, of the type wherein the weft yarn is retained by engagement of the head of a slider moving lengthwise, with a counteracting cooperating surface of the gripper body, said slider being thrust forward by a spring and being released by pulling a flexible lamina element connected thereto.
To date, in these grippers, the flexible lamina element causing the release of the slider (and thus the freeing of the weft yarn or of the seat engaging said yarn) is wound round a cylindrical pin, to allow the slider to move. Considering the somewhat limited dimensions involved, it has been found that the flexible control element, deeply stressed at high frequency, was inclined to break through fatigue after a period of use of the grippers which was too short to satisfy the production requirements. Moreover, in the known grippers of this type, difficulties to insert and retain the weft yarn were met when changing over from the medium counts of more common yarns to the thicker or thinner counts and/or to special types of yarns.
The present invention proposes to prevent these drawbacks by improving, on one hand, the mechanics of the slider return means for engagement of the weft yarn and, on the other hand, the construction of the head of said slider.